New Delhi, (IANS): The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday said the BJP was not taking action against those accused in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, because their own members were involved in (instigating) the communal violence.
“Be it in 1984 (anti-Sikh riots) or in 2002 (anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat), the Bharatiya Janata Party has taken no action against the guilty.
“The special investigation team formed by their own government closed 1984 riots cases because their own members were involved,” AAP leader Sanjay Singh told the media here.
His remarks came after the Supreme Court on Wednesday constituted a fresh Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired High Court Judge to further investigate the 186 anti-Sikh riot cases that were closed by an earlier SIT.
“Never in the history has any action been taken against those instigating communal violence in this country, because the ruling party at the Centre has either been the Congress or the BJP — those causing such violence,” he said.
Rampaging mobs had killed around 3,000 Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere across India in the aftermath of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by two of her security guards on October 31, 1984, in the national capital.
The official figures of Sikhs killed was around 2,800.
Noting that in 2014, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded an SIT inquiry into the anti-Sikh riots, Sanjay Singh said: “The BJP-led central government did not accept the SIT set up by the AAP government that was in power in Delhi for 49 days.”
“It made its own SIT, so that the accused could be saved, and this has been questioned by the Supreme Court.”
“This clearly shows that the BJP and Congress are hand in glove with each other,” the AAP leader said.
Former AAP MLA Jarnail Singh said the bills on anti-communal law and ethnic violence were never brought by the Centre before Parliament for passage. He demanded that these bills should be passed as soon as possible.
“It has been 33 years since the 1984 riots and the Supreme Court has now woken up to take action. Many witnesses have passed away during the period. Those who are alive should be given protection and trials be completed within a year,” he said.
The AAP leader said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should apologise to the people for neglecting the issue and also that the Congress should expel Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, who were accused of involvement in the riots.